Saturday, August 14, 2010

Ways to Impress Colleges With Your Application

Creating an impressive college application goes beyond answering every question and submitting it on time. You have to go the extra mile to really make admissions reviewers stop in their tracks and say to themselves, “We need to have this student at our school.” You have to make those reviewers want you and believe me, it’s no easy feat. But with a bit of planning and determination, your application will be on the top of the heap in no time.

Submit Early

One way you can impress college admissions reviewers right off the bat is by submitting your application early. Now, it goes without saying that rushing to complete an application will show, so that when you submit it will not matter that they’ve received it early. The point is, you want to submit applications early, if you can so that reviewers will get to take a look at yours when the volume of applications is relatively small. Your accomplishments are much more likely to stand out at this point in time rather than when they are inundated with applications.

Be Relevant

It can be tempting to lay out everything you’ve ever done on a college application, but you can accomplish a lot in four year’s time. You don’t want to leave college admissions reviewers swimming in your achievements. Rather, choose only the best of the best to include on your application. This goes for any application, really, including scholarships. You want to point out the biggest accomplishments and the most noteworthy items before the reviewer moves on to the next applicant. It’s all about catching their attention quickly.

Likewise, be careful to only include information that is relevant to the particular question you are answering. It’s easy to go on and on, but shows real restraint if you can make your answers concise and on topic.

Have Solid Academics

This can go without saying, but I’ll say it again anyway. You should have a solid academic record when you apply to college. High grades will impress the reviewers immediately and could even make them look past a lack of extracurricular activities or community service, depending on the college to which you are applying. Also, a high GPA and class ranking shows that you are committed to your schoolwork and ready for the challenges of college level work.

Don’t Shy Away From Extracurricular Activities

Colleges like to admit people with a well-rounded background. One of the best ways to show this is to have a slew of extracurricular activities under your belt. Maybe you’re a part of the foreign language club and play a sport. Or perhaps you sing in the choir and are in ASB. Regardless of what activities you choose to partake in, the importance lies in the fact that you are active on the school campus outside of school hours. This shows that you have the ability to maintain a balanced schedule and can keep your grades up while doing so. So, if you’re in your junior year and have yet to do something extracurricular, please sign up for something you’re interested in right away. Colleges will look on you much more favorably if you do.

It all comes down to what you’ve done and what you haven’t done. If you haven’t held good grades, you obviously can’t do anything about that on your college application. So, you see, the real way to impress a college is to put in the hard work early on, so that your application just falls into place.